Teacher Outfits!

I'm not a huge fan of BlackFriday shopping, but due to a lot of family budgets and financial reasons, I could only save up until BlackFriday to do what I can (not want).

Recently, I found out I don't have much of  formal clothes to go to work in. I love skinny jeans, but I have leopard printed, red, blue, green, and even neon yellow. Although those are awesome to wear (I bought them for $10 each!), I can't seem to find skinny jeans of duller color for work.

Even though they're not as cheap as I wanted, for this BlackFriday, I got several different colors of skinny pants (brown [$20], khaki [$20], gray [$20], corduroy blue [$10.70], and black sparkly [$9] [just because the plain black one was over $20!])

Mom recently bought me shoes too (all flats):

• Michael Kors -- black beige and gold 
• Lauren Ralph Lauren -- black and gold
• Lauren Ralph Lauren -- black and silver
• Guess -- gray skater shoes

I believe I can mismatch a lot of this. Can't wait to start wearing them this Monday!

Mandarin Guided Reading

Oh. My. Gosh.

http://www.fcrr.org/for-educators/sca.asp

Check it out! It was recommended by Dr. Cheryl Wolfel from Palatine School District who is a director for their bilingual program. I can totally use this for guided reading in Mandarin! I can check if I can start implementing some of the Chinese structure words into how they have it for English words.

We'll see.

It's on the to do list.

Cute is Not the Point

http://mattbgomez.com/i-dont-like-tpt/

So I've thought about it way before I even found the post. Why do teachers think making their classroom look "cute" will bring them the best practices in pedagogy? Why do teachers think making their worksheets look "cute" with characters drawn on them will make the worksheets more fun and authentic? I'm not sure why, but in the end, it doesn't help with anything. Sure, you can decorate, but if that's the only thing you do, are you really keeping "best practices" in mind?

Teachers are not hired to make things "cute". Teachers are hired to have the best practices and teach kids to love learning (and more... oh gosh way more).

General Questions

This post has been in the draft for awhile...

1. Do parents have specific roles for parties?
2. What can parents do for volunteering?
3. What can students do during indoor recess?
1. I found this... but not sure if I like all of them. 85% of them are just videos you dance do.
4. Students picking out independent reading book but don't know where to put it back?
1. Leave it in a basket for the teachers to put back according to lexile or fountas and pinnel.
5. Everytime I bring in supplies for all the kids, I gotta bring in 45 of them if I teach two grade levels. This is not a question, this is just a challenge.
6. Do 3rd graders know twitter, facebook, hashtags? If they do, I might be able to incorporate this in some lessons!

Treasure Chest

I just need a chest where I can put all my extrinsic awards in there if I need it in the fly. What can I have?

1. Star stickers
2. Smiley stickers
3. Pencils
4. Erasers
5. Small Dollar-store toys?
6. Homework pass

I'm wondering if I should add more or if I want to just add an abundance of the things...

Did Not Know -- Purchase of Images

I had no idea that people were selling clip art to teachers (or anyone).
http://www.scrappindoodles.com/ you have to pay to get pictures????

Read Matt's article today and it made me think about "cuteness" that teachers try to put into their classroom thinking it would make their classroom more effective.

I've thought about it for a pretty long time. What good is your classroom if you can't use it to its full potential? You can make it as cute as you it to be, but would having polka dots really help you organize where the students work should be stored? Or if having a pink and black pattern would help you organize your students' data.

But I'm also try to see the other side of the spectrum. Maybe having a cute classroom encourages the teachers to keep it cute, therefore keeping it more organized. I won't know until I start next year. We'll see!

Chinese Upbeat Song Update

I got up to 50 songs!! My goal is 100 and I'm already half way there! (started in October 26, 2013. It's been 15 days!! I've harassed my family and friends haha) I might be able to add at least 20 more :) We'll see!

... But I might delete a couple because some songs might not be the most ideal for 8/9 year olds haha.